It’s really all one big happy family . . .

Did you ever wonder why, if Prabowo was such a fundamentalist bully and Jokowi was such a snappily-dressed man of the people, the election was so close?

It’s because at the Indonesian presidential “court,” it’s just one big game of loyalty-swapping.  Can ideology-swapping be far behind?

A little tidbit from Wati:

As the first installment of my sins before the next Eid Mubarak, please be informed that I just received a text message from my friend in Jakarta, who attended a state visit at the presidential offices. SBY, Budiono, Mega, bu Umar Wirahadikusumah etc. were all there, including the Crown Princess.

[okay, a primer for those of you who are not up on your Indonesian “royalty:”

SBY is  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, current President.  He will turn over the presidency to Jokowi in October.

Budiono is the current Vice President.

Mega is of course Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri, the 5^th President of Indonesia (serving as Vice President under Abdurrahman Wahid  until his removal in 2001, when she took office until 2004.) She is now chair of the PDIP-the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Bu Umar Wirahadikusumah is the widow of the fourth Indonesian Vice President, who served from 1983 to 1988.)

And Puan Maharani, aka the "Crown Princess" among Jakarta wags, is Megawati’s daughter from her marriage to Taufiq Kiemas.  She holds the second highest positin in PDIP after Megawati, her mother. She is seen as “very arrogant and ambitious,” but rather dull-witted.

Got it?]

My friend was very concerned and scared to watch the behavior of the Crown Princess and acting Lady of the House.

The Crown Princess is so SNOBBISH! And she keeps proving her reputation over and over.

She as well as her cold hearted mom ignored guests unless they approached them first. While any host and/ or hostess is supposed to greet and thanks visitor, especially on Lebaran.

Then the CP and mom were  "attacked" (their term) by the conglomerates who wanted to have their photos taken with them . . .

Oh dear . . .poor Jokowi . . . hopefully he is NOT part of it . . .

Lets pray Jokowi will not put her in his cabinet despite the obvious pressure from President # 5.

I have to check but I think my dad was the witness when Puan got married . . . like most of other Soekarno children my father was involved because of his close relation with Soekarno.

This is the political game that's going on now. Jokowi  became the presidential candidate because Megawati’s party--PDIP –chose and supported . Mega’s game plan in the beginning was to have herself and Jokowi as one ticket.

In 2004 the ticket to oppose SBY had been Mega and Prabowo as president and VP.

But SBY won. So Mega split with Prabowo and Prabowo started a new party which is Gerindra.

Indonesia’s second president, Soeharto, belonged to the Golkar party. Prabowo married Titiek Soeharto.  They divorced after Soeharto’s downfall, and became very distant.

But Prabowo used his relation with the Soeharto family during the presidential campaign, and of course this infuriated Mega. On the other hand, both Mega’s and Prabowo’s parties, PDIP and Gerindra, supported Jokowi when he ran for Jakarta Governor, especially since Ahok, the deputy governor, is from Gerindra.

[is your head hurting?  Me, I need 6 aspirin and a nap.]

FYI JKW and Prabowo have not yet met with each other during Lebaran, although both came to see President SBY.

Hatta’s youngest daughter, was once very much a Gerindra activist but she soon quit Gerindra after she found out that she was just being used.

So Prabowo has used the daughters of Soekarno, Hatta  and Soeharto. 

Quite the trifecta of sleaze.

Does not this sound like a soap opera...?

In other news:

I celebrated Lebaran at the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi with a friend who’s at the Islamic National Bank in Kuala Lumpur. The food, especially the lontong cap go meh, was superb and most of my fellow countrymen were well behaved.  Except for one senior diplomat who argued that Jokowi is very bad for the country and will make Indonesia bankrupt within one year. When I suggested that he give JKW time to prove himself over the next 5 years, and that the worst case scenario is we can impeach him if he is so bad, this diplomat became unfriendly.

Thank God the food was so good . . . or else my shoe was ready to fly over his head. . . .

Who says politics is boring?

Dynasty in the Making?

My friend writes:

“Dear Sara,

There’s a photo of Puan Maharani, the only daughter of Megawati and Taufiq, holding the handwritten PDIP announcement of Jokowi’s candidacy.”

[40-year-old Puan served as Chair of the PDI-P faction in the House of Representatives from 2009-2014. She is granndaughter of the former (first) President of Indonesia, Soekarno.  Taufiq  was Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia from 2009 until his death in June 2013.]

 “This girl is extremely ambitious and it is Mega’s intention to leave the Soekarno torch to her daughter.  Therefore, I think Mega is using Jokowi as a “bridge" to prepare Puan as the Indonesian leader for the younger generation . . . perhaps one day as President.

I think she learned it from Lee Kwan Yew, who has Goh chiok Tong took the torch before handing it to B G Lee.”

[Lee Kwan Yew served as Singapore’s (first) Prime Minister for over 30 years until Goh Chok Tong as the second PM appointed him Senior Minister in 1990, a post created by his son Lee Hsien Long.  Sound familiar?]

“Prabowo copies the Suharto strategy of using his "expertise" with the farmers (HKTI—Indonesian Farmers’ Association), although unlike Soeharto, Prabowo knows very little of farming.

“I knew Prabowo the "king maker" relatively well as a young, educated and smart man in his 30’s. I met him several times.

“Suharto’s step-brother Probosutejo, [no stranger to the wrong side of the law] and some of Suharto’s  family are supporting  Prabowo.  But the Suharto children, especially Titiek [Prabowo’s ex-wife] and Tommy [another black sheep, with convictions, jail time and a divorce under his belt] are now competing with their former husband and brother in law. Titiek joined Golkar and supported Ical Bakrie as a candidate. Oh, Lapindo!”

 [Bakrie is a highly successful Indonesian businessman of questionable scruples.  He was Coordinating Minister for the Economy from 2005-2009 and is the Golkar Party’s Chair and presidential candidate. His popularity has dwindled in his own party, partly because of the 2011 mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, in which was allegedly caused by improper drilling by PT Lapindo Brantas, an exploration company partly controlled by the Bakrie family. The ongoing mudflow has displaced thousands and cost the government trillions of rupiah in recovery measures.]

“Tommy was not so successful in politics, but did recently open the 300-room Syariah Hotel in Solo. . .  [presumably] as another step to regain power.

"SBY’s sons also are trying to bolster their images as young politicians. . . .

"Sad . . . I wish the earlier leaders were still alive; I bet you that both they and we would experience the same frustrations watching the behavior of their respective children.”